History of Fantasy Football

Each year, millions of American from all across the country and from all walks of life take part in fantasy football, making it the most popular and widely played of all fantasy sports. Every year, it just seems to get even bigger and even more popular! Few people, however, know the real history behind the country’s most popular fantasy spot. Here’s just a quick look at the origins and history of fantasy football!   

The history of modern fantasy football dates back decades, well before the online-era that the game largely takes place in today. The sport’s invention is widely accredited to Wilfred Winkenbach, an Oakland businessman and partner of the Oakland Raiders, as well as Oakland Raiders public relations employee Bill Tunnel and journalist Scotty Stirling. In a New York City hotel room during the 1962 season, the trio drew up the basic rules of fantasy football and laid the foundation for its widespread popularity in the years to come.    

The inaugural season of their league took place in August 1963 in Winkenbach’s Oakland home. In the 1960s, the game spread to sports bars in the San Francisco Bay Area and slowly around the country in the years that followed. In 1985, Grandstand Sports Services launched the first nationally available fantasy football league through an early version of the Internet. In 1989, the sport’s popularity continued to grow as the first national fantasy football competition was launched.    

1997 proved to be the turning point in the game’s popularity. That year, CBS launched a free online fantasy football league open to the public on their website. The game, now accessible to everyone and simplified, immediately became a big hit with the American public. Within just a few years, every sports media website launched their own fantasy football hosting services and the NFL followed suit in 2010 with a hosting service on its own website. Today, the sport has never been more popular – being played by more than 19 million people across the United States every year!   

From its humble beginnings in a New York City hotel room to its widespread popularity today, fantasy football has grown by leaps and bounds. It can still be hard to believe that it was invented by three friends just trying to kill some kill in between real NFL games!